Choosing a Container For Your Terrarium

There are different ways of adding beauty in rooms, with one of the ways being the use of different types of plants. That said you find that people are looking for new and different ways that they can grow plants in indoor environments. One of the ways of growing plants indoors which is gaining popularity is the use of terrariums. A terrarium can be described as an assortment of plants in a sealed environment, in this case a transparent container. The interesting thing about terrariums is the fact that the sealed container within which the plants are grown is a self-contained man-made environment that generates its own climatic conditions. Anyone can build a terrarium and this need not be a difficult undertaking as long as one puts into mind the following considerations: the first and most important thing to note is the fact that the container chosen to house the terrarium environment needs to be transparent(preferably glass) to allow sunlight through . When making a container selection for the terrarium environment, one should make sure that the container has ample space for putting in the plants and soil. When it comes to the selections of your plants especially if one wants to plant different types of plants, he or she should choose plant types that share the same climatic conditions.

Before we delve into the details of designing a terrarium it is important to discuss the two types of terrariums so as to know what type will be best suited for our indoor environment. There are usually two types of terrariums, either open or closed. Open terrariums tend to have a high tolerance for direct sunlight as compared to closed ones although in the event that one chooses this type may find that plants planted and in contact with the container tend to get their leaves burnt.

Closed terrariums are usually meant for places where there is ample sunlight, although not direct as this tends to cause temperature spikes inside the closed terrarium environment causing the plants to be destroyed by the excess heat. The importance of terrarium choice is the fact that different plants have different environmental requirement, thus planting plants in the wrong terrarium might actually kill them.

The first step in the terrarium design after selecting the container and choosing the appropriate terrarium for your plants is making the drainage as this is important to prevent the plantsâ€™ roots from rotting due to accumulation of water in the container. In this case, one can improvise by taking broken pottery and placing about 1 to 3 inches depending on the container’s height.

After putting the drainage material the next step in your terrarium design is placing a layer of charcoal on top of the drainage material whose purpose will be to ensure the soil stays fresh after which you can proceed to place the soil on which your plants will grow. The soil selection will largely depend on the types of plants one wants to grow since different plants require different types of soil on which to grow. One should make sure to place ample soil that will enable the creation of holes for the plantsâ€™ root balls.

Eventually, one will then proceed to plant the plants after preparing the terrarium. In this case it is usually wise to choose plants that take time to grow as compared to those that grow faster. After selecting the plants, one needs to examine them and make sure they are not diseased or infested by insects after which he or she will then proceed to prune them before planting them.

When doing the planting a rule of thumb is to always plant the largest plants in the terrarium followed by the small ones and to avoid over planting. After planting one will then finish by adding the ground cover after which the terrarium should placed under a shade or filtered light for seven days.

The terrarium should not be left to its own devices as it needs a little maintenance to ensure that the climate within the terrarium stays conducive so that the plants do not die. One should always make sure that the plants have ample sunlight so that they do not wilt. If one observes that the plants have thin, weak stems, this means they are not getting enough sunlight. Wilted Leaves which may sometimes have burnt spots is usually an indicator of too much sun.